A Spy Kit for the Modern James Bond

Behind closed doors

What goes on behind closed doors might be an open book for those with the right tools.

A sneaky peek of your company might need only go as far as infiltrating your mailroom. At about $20 a can, X-Ray Spray will let you see what's inside an envelope by making it temporarily translucent. Once dry, it leaves no trace of snooping.

Every picture tells a story, but perhaps not always as effectively as sound.

Someone intent on hearing your innermost secrets, stealing your privileged business information or trying to catch the milkman crawling through the bedroom window can use such devices as Detect Ear, a device that allows you to listen to sounds up to 300 yards away.

There is also that old-fashioned standby of bugging a room by placing a recording device inside a telephone handset or stashing a transmitter the same way a camera might be concealed.

The world of corporate espionage is also leading some -- perhaps as much out of paranoia as to protect trade secrets -- to take on a bit of countersurveillance.

The CPM-700, for example, is a broadband receiver designed to detect and find all major types of electronic surveillance devices including room, phone, body bugs, video transmitters and tape recorders. It's everything needed to perform a professional sweep and fits inside a standard briefcase.

The Personal RF Detector, which costs between $500 and $600, is a handheld model for finding transmitters or bugging devices in a room or automobile.

More expensive, advanced bug sweepers come with jamming technology to prevent conversations from being heard clearly.